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TWENTIETH CENTURY 
COMMERCE AND 
ITS REGULATION 


AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

OHIO 

BANKERS ASSOCIATION 

At Sandusky, Ohio 
JULY 3, 1912 


By FRED I. JC E N T, Vice-President 
BANKERS TRUST COMPANY 
NEW YORK CITY 







« 



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c^pv2j 

twentieth' Century commerce 

AND ITS REGULATION. 

J During the last hundred years the world’s 
population has increased close to one thousand 
millions, or about 140%. During the same 
period the world’s trade has increased about 
1800% and it is estimated reached a total of 
$27,000,000,000 in 1905, of which over lO^^ 
represented the foreign trade of the United 
States. These figures do not include the internal 
trade of any of the nations. The countries hav¬ 
ing the largest foreign trade are those in which 
the great modern conveniences of living abound. 
Science and Trade have made it possible to feed 
one thousand million more mouths to-day with 
greater certainty than the lesser number could be 
fed 100 years ago. They have reduced the pro¬ 
portion of the population which has to work to 
produce enough food so that all shall be able to 
live, and have reduced the number of daily hours 
of work required of each individual. Of the bal¬ 
ance of those who labor many manufacture arti¬ 
cles of need, convenience or desire, and others dis¬ 
tribute the products of all kinds. Twentieth 
Century Commerce is adding comfort, ease and 
luxury to those who live in the fast growing 
cities and to the rural populations of the world. 
It is based on great combinations of men and 
capital which conserve energy, direct it carefully, 
develop mechanical and scientific genius and store 
and distribute commodities so that there is sta¬ 
bility of labor and of life. 

^ Fairness to all in the development of com¬ 
merce is seemingly impossible. Human nature 
and the imperfect judgment of men stand in the 
way, but the requirements of the multitude ever 
tend toward betterment, and proper regulation 
always follows increased power. It must not 
be forgotten that right action under the conditions 
of yesterday may be wrong action to-day, that the 
wonderful commercial machinery of the present 
has been brought about through the foresight of 
men who comprehended and risked while others 
were blind and over cautious, that such individ¬ 
uals while properly having to submit to certain 
control that developments have now made neces¬ 
sary are none the less benefactors of the nation^ 


and that they deserve commendation and not con¬ 
demnation. We must remember that many of 
the laws controlling them to-day were unneces¬ 
sary and non-existent yesterday. Laws of antici¬ 
pation choke a nation’s growth, but laws of 
regulation if based on science and development, 
and not on envy or prejudice, may add to its 
strength. 

^ As the population has increased and its density 
has grown greater, it has become necessary, in 
order to make it possible to meet the needs of the 
people, to multiply the division of labor and to 
increase the size of capital organizations of all 
kinds. It is only by means of system that speed 
can be acquired in delivery of goods, and the 
consumption of our population has become so 
vast that great efficiency and great speed in 
handling commodities are necessary in order to 
prevent starvation. A slight stoppage in the ma¬ 
chinery of trade inevitably brings suffering to a 
part of the population. This has been shown 
most effectively in England since the strike of the 
coal miners. The evolution from separate shops 
to great organizations has been brought about be¬ 
cause of necessity. 

Q The desire for profit is one of the moving 
forces which induces progress. Such desire is 
uppermost in the thought of every human being. 
It may not be expressed in an endeavor to get 
dollars, but instead may show itself in its direct 
aim for the power that it is supposed dollars will 
buy. This desire could be exerted if there were 
not a dollar in the world, but money, which is 
nothing other than a medium of exchange, has 
had to bear the ignominy of the selfish desire 
for profit, when in reality it has nothing to do 
with it. To some individuals the desire for 
profit is an anxiety to raise themselves to the 
detriment of all others. Again, it is represented 
in the wish to improve the conditions of all peo¬ 
ple. There is an inherent sense of right imbedded 
in the human heart, which makes individuals re¬ 
alize that fair profit for all is not only the correct 
but the better way. If left to itself, the normal 
human mind would develop naturally along lines 
which would mean increased satisfaction, with 
every betterment of condition. On the other 
hand, when a portion of the people are willing 
to obtain their profit through a development of 


2 


the baser nature of hui^anity, improvement in 
individual conditions may breed d-issatisfaction 
and dissension. The man who yesterday was 
living without most of the modern conveniences 
has been taught by the portion of our community, 
who might legitimately be called the mind poison¬ 
ers, to judge of his present condition, which may 
be a great advance over his past, not in relation 
to his own previous mode ^ living but in relation 
to that of others who may be better off. On this 
account the forms of evolution which have bet¬ 
tered the condition of the individual are not ap¬ 
preciated, but are decried, because they have also 
bettered the condition of other individuals. The 
old scandal monger of the village, who used to 
cause such unhappiness to his neighbors, has 
grown and been consolidated into vast news dis¬ 
tributing agencies, which cause the same distrust 
and dissension among our larger communities that 
prevailed in the smaller ones. This growth of 
the mind poisoning trust is something that must 
be recognized. It is parasitical and feeds upon 
human errors that will inevitably arise as the 
needs of humanity are met. It is not contented 
to allow evolution to proceed in an orderly man¬ 
ner, through the elimination of errors as rapidly 
as they assume proportions which make it essen¬ 
tial for the good of the people, but instead en¬ 
deavors to tear down the good with the bad, and 
lives upon the success of its neighbors by appeal¬ 
ing to the baser attributes of man. 

^ This development must be recognized and con¬ 
sidered before we can fairly judge of the value of 
the various commercial and business organiza¬ 
tions which have made possible our marvelous 
growth. It has just as important a bearing as 
the increase in commerce, if we would properly 
test the efficacy of our modern institutions. Our 
immediate future growth and success will de¬ 
pend largely upon what proportion of our popu¬ 
lation is able to consider these two matters fairly 
and justly. No one can deny the fact that labor 
to-day is better paid, has shorter hours, and is 
surrounded by greater comforts and luxuries than 
ever in the past. It is also true that the prices of 
some articles are higher, so that the dollars will 
not buy as much, hut after all other reasons for 
this have been given their due, there still remains 
the fact that one cause of the higher prices is 
the consumption of the articles in question by a 


3 


larger proportion of the population, which has 
only become possible because of the better condi¬ 
tions already referred to. That this improvement 
in condition is true does not mean that we should 
be satisfied with the present, neither does it mean 
that we should endeavor to destroy the power 
which has brought it about. Instead we should 
study the conditions with an open mind, with the 
idea of continuing those things which have proved 
successful and eliminating others which have 
been found to hamper progress, or which may 
have been valuable features in the past but that 
have outgrown their usefulness. 

^ Now going back to the question of our com¬ 
merce, we find that the increase has been neces¬ 
sary in order that the improved conditions just 
mentioned may exist. Further, no one will prob¬ 
ably deny that if it had not been for the larger 
manufacturing and distributing agencies that it 
would have been impossible for our millions of 
individuals to have obtained the various articles 
which are common to-day, but which were lux¬ 
uries yesterday, and that are the inheritance of 
the multitude. The desire for profit on the part 
of the big packing companies in the country 
caused them to hire chemists for the purpose of 
studying out means to use the various bi-products 
of animals slaughtered. The result has been a 
reduction in waste of a tremendous percentage 
and an increased number of valuable commodi¬ 
ties which are common to all. 

^ In the electrical field the power to develop 
conveniences for the use of humanity has been 
multiplied, and the years necessary to bring them 
into general use'have been so few that most of 
the great inventions seem to have happened yes¬ 
terday, only because of the great electrical man¬ 
ufacturing corporations. The same thing is true 
in the steel' trade, in the railroad business, and 
in fact in almost every human activity which 
has tended to improve the condition of man. 
None of these huge, corporations would have been 
possible if it were not for the banking power 
which has collected idle funds throughout the 
country, brought them together and placed them 
at the disposal of those who have been able to 
use them for the benefit of all concerned. This 
concentration of banking capital has moved for¬ 
ward more slowly than that of any other of our 


4 


great commercial activities, and whatever our 
growth may have been, it might have reached a 
tar more advanced position had our banking 
power been consolidated more rapidly. That it 
has not done so is because the average human 
mind has less real knowledge of the uses of credit 
than of almost any other business. It requires a 
specialist of long training, or a genius, to prop¬ 
erly distribute the credits made from an accumu¬ 
lation of capital. It is for this reason that the 
ordinary writer or speaker, who has no real con¬ 
ception of credit, can, through his flights of im¬ 
agination, carry the people with him in his ex¬ 
pressed fallacies. The specialist, on the other 
hand, is looked upon with suspicion, largely be¬ 
cause he cannot always be understood, and fur¬ 
ther, because those who have not been worthy of 
receiving credit and have been refused by him, 
either because they have been untrustworthy, or 
have lacked ability, or have proposed propositions 
carrying unjustifiable risks, have been disgrun¬ 
tled. It is not generally realized either that the 
interests of the bankers and the people are in¬ 
dissolubly linked. This does not mean that some 
men of dishonor may not be found in the bank¬ 
ing business any more than that such is true in 
any other profession, or in any other line of 
trade. Honorable bankers, however, have done, 
and are doing everything within their power to 
curtail the possible operations of the dishonest 
banker and to keep him out of their midst. Their 
activities in this line for self-preservation are all 
that is required in order to have progression in 
proportion to the understanding of the times. 
Unfortunately any wrong in the banking business 
usually becomes a vital wrong before it is cor¬ 
rected, but such is true in everything,’ Something 
that may be legitimate and proper in its incipiency 
may become radically wrong when operations are 
largely multiplied. This makes an opening fot 
the mind poisoning trust and gives them material 
upon which to work, 

^ In addition to criticism of this nature is the 
vicious misrepresentation of the dishonest politic 
cian and the misguided criticism of the honor¬ 
able but ignorant “would be” reformer, whether 
political or otherwise. 

tj As the assembling of funds by the banker in 
the small community and the extension of credit 


5 


based upon them was found to be beneficial to 
all, so has the assembling of portions of the 
funds so collected in greater institutions been 
valuable to the whole country. The principle is 
recognized in business and in law that a proper 
ratio must exist between the total capital of 
any banking institution and the amount of credit 
which it may extend to any individual borrower. 
Hanks of large capital and deposits have been 
able to make loans of large amounts, which have 
been conservative and fair to those whose money 
they are investing, because they are in proper 
proportion to their resources. These loans have 
enabled our huge industries to give employment 
to millions of our people and provide all with, 
comforts and conveniences of life not otherwise 
possible. If we would continue our progress, 
there is no question but that we shall have to 
have a greater consolidation of banking capital 
than exists to-day. We are behind practically 
all of the other civilized countries of the globe 
in this respect in proportion to our business, and 
it is partly on this account that the bulk of our 
foreign trade is financed by European bankers. 
A part of the fear which has been impressed upon 
the people lies in the question of control of 
capital. No one can doubt for a moment that 
control in the hands of men who have been 
trained in the banking business, and whose repu¬ 
tation and living depend upon their meeting suc¬ 
cessfully the problems which come up before 
them, affords greater security to the people than 
if capital were subject to any other body of men 
in existence. Under our development at the 
present time, the protection of the people lies 
not alone in the ability and natural desire of 
those in control to run their business along proper 
lines, but as well because each individual inter¬ 
ested, while co-operating with the whole for bet¬ 
ter conditions, is working for his own profit. 
The bankers of the United States have been 
coming closer and closer together as it has seemed 
necessary. While the managers of these institu¬ 
tions consult with each other and have the most 
friendly relations in everything that has to do 
with safety in business, yet after this point has 
been reached, they compete for their own in¬ 
stitutions with all their energy. The bankers in 
the central reserve and reserve cities have ex¬ 
tended the uses of their Clearing House Asso¬ 
ciations, where it has been thought that concerted 


6 



action would increase efficiency and safety, but 
individual banks have still been able to compete 
for business in every legitimate way. As our 
banking capital has not been able to keep pace in 
its consolidation with the business requirements 
of the country, it has been necessary for those 
desiring to obtain funds in large amounts for the 
purpose of advancing different lines of business 
to depend upon a series of separate banking in¬ 
stitutions. In dealing with each other in this 
manner, the managers of banks have become bet¬ 
ter acquainted, have learned where they could 
put their trust, and have been able to meet the 
needs of our rapidly growing country. The idea 
of a so-called “money trust” lies in the knowledge 
that the managers of the principal banks of our 
country have become personally acquainted with 
each other, and can deal intelligently and safely 
with one another. The danger from such a trust 
is considered to lie largely in the fear that because 
of such acquaintanceship only the proposed oper¬ 
ations of friends can be financed. It is said that 
because of the consultations concerning the credit 
of various projects that injustice may be done. 
Any proposition which is unsafe for one able 
banker, who has investigated it carefully and 
found it wanting, is unsafe for every other 
banker. It must be true, therefore, that the de¬ 
positor’s money is better protected through such 
inter-communication, and that the general public 
will have fewer bad propositions offered it. If 
all of these men were strangers to each other and 
could not depend upon information received, 
when they were investigating the standing of 
some concern with whose operations or history 
they were not personally familiar, those who are 
objecting to the so-called “money trust” would 
apparently be satisfied. Just as soon, however, 
as these men, through the carrying out of trans¬ 
actions, became acquainted and began to have 
confidence in each other, then another money 
trust would be formed. When it is considered 
that the communities of interest which have been 
formed are based upon right principles, and that 
their action serves to protect bank depositors, and 
that they are able to carry on their transactions 
conservatively, because their representatives are 
men of ability and known honor, it should be 
called the “integrity trust” in opposition to the 
'“mind poisoning trust.” It has been contended 
that because of the integrity trust, no one not 


among the elect can obtain money to finance any 
project, if it so happens that the proposition 
would compete with some already established 
business which was controlled by the interests 
represented among the bankers. For instance, 
the statement was made that if anyone wished to 
build a railroad paralleling the Atchison that he 
could not obtain the money to do so. There is 
no doubt but that should such a road be sug¬ 
gested, the promoter would be required to prove 
to the satisfaction of those who might be called 
upon to advance the funds that there was need 
for such a railroad line, and that it could make 
money. If this could be done, there is no ques¬ 
tion but that the money could be found to build 
the railroad. The public would certainly have 
nothing to gain if a new road were established to 
parallel the Atchison, which would not make 
money, or if it did, which would bankrupt the 
Atchison. In other words, if there were not 
enough business for both roads to make money, 
it would be bad for all concerned to have the 
second road built. There is enough capital in 
the United States, and it is held in enough dif¬ 
ferent channels, so that every legitimate project 
which is for the good of the people can be car¬ 
ried out, but where the risks involved are ab¬ 
normal it will, of course, be necessary to obtain 
the funds from some one who is willing to take an 
abnormal chance. On the other hand, when men 
of inexperience and of no known ability, or men 
who are unwilling to put their own money into 
a proposition, attempt to raise money for any 
new scheme, there is no doubt but that they 
would have great difficulty in doing so among the 
bankers whose names back of the project would 
be apt to induce the people to invest. Occa¬ 
sionally such bankers may make a mistake, but 
their average judgment as to the successful oper¬ 
ation of schemes which are brought to them is 
so high that the public knows that it is safe to in¬ 
vest in securities backed by the honorable bankers 
of the country. Conservative people who are 
not attracted by get-rich-quick concerns are mak¬ 
ing such investments daily, and have been doing 
so for years to their entire satisfaction. 

^ Recognizing all of these conditions that sur¬ 
round the development of our commerce, the 
question is how can we best continue to allow 
the development which is necessary in order to 


S 


meet the requirements of a rapidly growing pop¬ 
ulation and still have the individual condition of 
our people continue to improve. 

^ The introduction of politics into business is 
always attended with serious re-actions, which 
inevitably bring suffering to the poorer classes. 
Business of any kind when subjected to legisla¬ 
tive investigations, carried on as they must be be¬ 
cause of the way in which they are brought about, 
is apt to be seriously injured. It does not matter 
whether a congressional investigation is put into 
the hands of a conservative committee or is han¬ 
dled by some individual who has offered a reso¬ 
lution calling the committee into existence, it 
usually develops into a mere muckraking pro¬ 
ceeding. Human nature, which is just' as viru¬ 
lent in Congress as out of Congress, demands 
that it should be so. When a man in order to 
bring himself before the public offers a resolution 
which results in the creation of a committee, of 
which he is the head, to investigate some condi¬ 
tion which he thinks would be of value to him 
before the people to have shown up, his every 
energy is naturally turned toward proving that 
his case is a good one and that he was justified 
in calling forth the investigation. Instead, there¬ 
fore, of the business which is under investigation 
having an impartial judge protecting its interests 
while it is under fire, it is obliged not only to 
prove its case but to down prejudice against it, 
and then what is still more difficult, to obtain a 
verdict from a self-constituted judge which is ab¬ 
solutely opposed to his own interests, and which 
contradicts public statements previously made by 
him. The result is that all those who may have 
been driven out of the particular business, 
whether through their own dishonesty, inability 
or otherwise, are called upon or allowed to tes¬ 
tify, and their statements are given the greatest 
credence. Many of these investigations are 
aimed to bring out information concerning some¬ 
thing which may have happened a number of 
years previous. Then the whole proposition 
comes down to a memory test and things are 
asked of men which are impossible. For instance 
in considering the conditions which developed in 
the panic of 1907, no man can by any mental 
jugglery put himself in the exact condition of 
mind which he held at a particular moment at 
that time. He cannot differentiate between that 


9 


which he knew before the particular moment in 
question and that which he has found out since. 
The result is that when men are put upon the 
stand and asked to explain certain actions, it is 
a human impossibility for them to do so with 
positiveness. They cannot tell whether certain 
events which had developed at the period in ques¬ 
tion or soon after were known to them or antici¬ 
pated by them when they reached the decision 
which resulted in the action that is under invest¬ 
igation. It is equally impossible for the man 
who is opposed to such a witness to state his 
position at the time under consideration, whether 
he honorably wishes to do so or not. Of course 
it is to the interest of one party to uphold his 
own action and the other to decry it. In neither 
case, however, can any fair judgment be arrived 
at as to whether the parties acted honorably and 
properly at the time. Whether subsequent events 
showed that some action was ill advised and 
should not have been taken has no bearing what¬ 
ever upon the question of motive which may 
have induced the decision. In times of panic 
men of power act, and it is fortunate for the 
people that they do so. Even if later it appeared 
as though some other action than that taken 
might have worked out better, yet there is no 
way of proving it, for the course of events would 
have been changed and more serious results might 
have been encountered. While it is proper and 
right that all of the conditions surrounding a 
given panic be studied, yet a general airing of 
men’s memories as to their sequence of thought 
at the time only leads to chaos and makes it im¬ 
possible for those who read the evidence to get 
any real idea of anything which occurred. The 
result can only be injustice, and should a similar 
serious situation develop in the same generation, 
it would add another element of doubt and fear 
as to what to do on the part of those who were 
obliged to meet the brunt of the difficulty. 

Again, when a matter has been given to a spe¬ 
cial committee to investigate, while the chances 
of fairness are somewhat greater yet prejudice 
may easily develop. When the members of the 
committee meet with opposition in obtaining 
facts which they may think pertinent to the in¬ 
quiry, but which may be unfair to bring out, it 
is only natural that they should try and bring 
pressure to bear in order to uphold their dignity 


and prove that they were right in asking for the 
information. The committee, therefore, gradu¬ 
ally sides over against those whose actions they 
are looking into. This is the easier way to do 
also, because it is generally supposed that a ver¬ 
dict against the business interests will be more 
popular. 

^ Investigations of a certain kind are valuable 
to Congress in helping it draft legislation, but 
they should be carried on in a most careful man¬ 
ner, without sensationalism of any kind. The 
public in the meantime should be able to go on in 
the even tenor of its way, and business should 
not be kept in a constant turmoil of excitement 
and uncertainty. 

^ While publicity is the cry of the day and is 
proper in so far as facts are concerned, yet the 
encouragement of the unsuccessful and discon¬ 
tented to force themselves into the public eye to 
recite their tales of woe is a real menace. 

^ Again, the employment of lawyers to handle 
congressional investigations, who are skilled in 
winning cases through their sharpness in be¬ 
fuddling witnesses, is another serious abuse of 
the rights of the people. It is unfair to place 
business men on the stand before the general 
public and subject them to such treatment. When 
giving testimony they are always obliged to con¬ 
sider carefully what information it is fair and 
right for them to give. Much that has a bearing 
on private interests that they are bound to pro¬ 
tect is valueless as far as the question of new 
legislation is concerned, but such matters are 
forced from them if possible. An inquisitive at¬ 
torney trying to make a name for himself in¬ 
stead of allowing the man on the stand to think 
intelligently and give the facts which would be 
of value to Congress, watches him like a hawk, 
and the minute he hesitates for any reason jumps 
at the conclusion that he is trying to cover up 
some rare morsel of scandal. The witness is then 
heckled and browbeaten in an effort to find out 
what caused the hesitation. He is at all times 
on the defensive and must of necessity be so, for 
he is usually prejudged and found guilty and 
knows it. Commerce should not be regulated 
through any such means. 




11 


^ High cost of living waters the seeds of discon¬ 
tent and encourages legislative investigations and 
indiscriminate criticism, but every individual who 
is endeavoring to improve his own position is 
living in the same glass house and is equally re¬ 
sponsible for his share of the seeming trouble. 
Increase in prices is repugnant to everyone, in so 
far as it has to do with the things which he pur¬ 
chases. On the other hand, no man nor set of 
men stops to consider this matter in connection 
with anything that they may be personally de¬ 
pending upon for their livelihood. The business 
man while objecting to high prices on the com¬ 
modities which he buys for his home, strives to 
make himself better able to purchase by getting 
more out of his own line. Whenever he en¬ 
deavors to do this through the obtaining of 
greater efficiency in production or distribution, 
it works to the advantage of all concerned, but 
where it goes into increase cost of the article in 
which he is interested, it means higher prices for 
some one else to pay on this particular commo¬ 
dity. When the men in a labor union feel the 
effect of the higher prices of things in general 
they strike for higher wages-, in order to meet 
them, and demand all that they can get without 
regard to whether it forces up the price of the 
article they are helping to manufacture. All this 
is perfectly natural but leads to the conclusion 
that regulation of our commerce, which is in 
reality the regulation of the means which makes 
our commerce possible, should not be based on 
the action of men as individuals but upon the 
systems under which they work, and that the in¬ 
tent should be not to disrupt this, that and the 
other branch of business, but to bring them all 
in proper relation to each other. The farmers 
want high prices for wheat, corn, cattle, cotton 
and other commodities which they raise, and low 
prices for the same and other articles in a manu¬ 
factured state. The manufacturing interests wish 
the opposite condition to prevail, and this of 
course includes the majority of our laboring pop¬ 
ulation. The mind poisoning trust plays one 
against the other with satisfaction only to itself. 
This then is the first great trust which should he 
investigated, for it is at the bottom of most of 
the discontent existing in the world to-day. As 
the masses have ccme out from under the cloud 
of ignorance in which they have been enveloped, 
they have been led by this great octopus. Their 


12 


eyes have been opened more by falsehood than 
by truth, but as their education progresses and 
they begin to see the tremendous price which 
they are forced to pay through the constant tur¬ 
moil of business brought about by their accept¬ 
ance of vicious teachings, the conditions are go¬ 
ing to improve and regulation will go forward 
in a more scientific and unbiased manner. It is 
needful, therefore, if we would take the premier 
position in the development of commerce with its 
resultant benefits to our people, that our law¬ 
makers begin the study of the system of the mind 
poisoning trust immediately, with a view of 
bringing about its dissolution. 

^ Investigation of this trust should not be made 
a personal matter any more than in the case of 
any other. It is more the system itself that is at 
fault than the men who are in it, and the system 
is the result of the ignorance and action of the 
people themselves. The individuals represented 
by the reporters, editors, writers, public speakers 
and others have been working under a pressure 
of public demand, and they have often been led 
on through necessity to do things entirely foreign 
to their wishes. Constant repetition of dishonest 
writing and speaking leads to self-hypnotism, and 
the wrong is forgotten in striving for a liveli¬ 
hood. The system, therefore, should be changed 
in such manner as to make it dangerous for that 
portion of the population which gives up its life 
to writing and speaking to knowingly or even 
carelessly distort the truth in order to play upon 
the human passions. If the work is undertaken 
in a scientific manner without permitting any 
personalities to enter into it, there is no doubt but 
that the majority of those who are now servants 
of the system would be glad to do their utmost 
to put their life work upon an honorable basis. 

^ This is undoubtedly the most difficult of the 
problems which the world faces to-day, for the 
right of free speech must be protected and at the 
same time license must be prohibited. It is a 
problem worthy of the best efforts of our law 
makers, and if satisfactorily solved they would be 
among the principal gainers. It would leave 
them more free to act as their best judgment dic¬ 
tated for the benefit of the country which they 
are chosen to govern, and would make the carry¬ 
ing out honorably of their oath of office a pleas- 


ir? 


ure instead of a hardship. It would serve as 
well to simplify the regulation of all other public 
interests, and would be the first great step toward 
the real enlightenment of our people and would 
lead inevitably toward contentment and happi¬ 
ness. This then is our one great problem which 
needs solving above all others. Business men of 
themselves, for their own profit and protection, 
are constantly improving the conditions under 
which commerce is carried on. As soon as a 
wrong method of conducting business develops 
to the point where it becomes a menace, the cus¬ 
toms of business change to meet it and the public 
is protected before legislation is undertaken. The 
commerce of the future is going to follow the 
lines of least resistence and is going to change 
as time goes on, until every country produces that 
which it is best able to produce, taking into con¬ 
sideration its natural resources and the mental 
development of its people. Every line of busi¬ 
ness is constantly working toward a condition 
where it may be carried on at a minimum, nat¬ 
ural expense. This phenomenon may be noted 
in the thousands of removals and liquidations of 
factories. In some cases where a town has been 
built up entirely on the production of some one 
commodity, something different has taken its 
place when it has developed that the article which 
it manufactured could be more cheaply made else¬ 
where. This is one of the evidences of evolu¬ 
tion in business, and exactly as it is true in a 
small way in the case of towns and cities in the 
same country, so it is true between the different 
countries of the world. A time is surely coming 
when certain kinds of wasteful competition will 
be practically eliminated and will be reflected in 
a world’s trade of tremendous proportions. Its 
regulation will be more confined to the natural 
laws governing production and distribution than 
hy man made laws, the majority of which will 
become obsolete when man has learned to prop¬ 
erly control public utterance of all kinds. The 
world’s trade will then represent a fair exchange 
of commodities and their greatest possible dis¬ 
tribution among the peoples of the earth, and we 
in the United States of America, with our diver¬ 
sified resources and composite mentality, should 
lead all the nations in the march toward prosper¬ 
ity and commercial peace. 


14 




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